Sports

Costa Rica moves around a soccer ball. Other countries like the US have many season sports like basketball, baseball, and football; not so Costa Rica. Yes, many sports are played in the country but nothing stirs up passions like soccer does. A typical Costa Rica town will have a school, a catholic church, a park and a soccer field. Kids play it on the streets and in schools and the country comes to a halt when the National Team, La Sele, plays. Speaking of which, the world cup qualifiers will start on November 13th, so we will bring more info on that later.

But not only La Sele wakes up passions in Costa Rica. There is another very special game which also gets unlimited attention by the news and the ticos; el Clásico. This is the biggest game in Costa Rica. Saprissa and Alajuela clash in match like no other. Everyone talks about it, news and sports channels, newspapers and radio stations talk about the coming game for at least one week before and for a few days after. The game day congregates anywhere from 17,000 to 35,000 spectators, that means a packed stadium depending on the venue where they play.

Sunday November 8th, was the day for the second Clásico of the season. Saprissa and Alajuela came face to face at the National Stadium in La Sabana (the gem jewel of the tico soccer fans). Alajuela came in as the current leader of the season and Saprissa came in needing to win to calm down its fans and silence some negative comments due to the not so good season it is having.

The game was not the most excited, mostly due to the fact the many of the players will go to the National Team this week for the beginning of the World Cup qualifiers for Russia 2018, so they were watching out for injuries. Alajuela took the lead 1-0 in the second half and that was enough to win the game.

Once again Costa Rica was painted purple and white for Saprisa and red and black for Alajuela. Now the game is over and they will face each other again may be in the season play offs. If not, it will be until next season where the eternal rivals will face each other again. In the meantime the nation gets ready for the game against Haiti, and of course, we will bring you all the details of that one as well.